MARTIN LUTHER ON THE LAW by John Norton Loughborough

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 8, 1861

MARTIN LUTHER ON THE LAW.

By John Norton Loughborough

On reading the article from Bro. White in Review No. 5, of present Vol., I noticed an extract from Michelet's Life of Luther, on the subject of the Sabbath. I supposed from that quotation that Luther was to all intents a no-law, and no-Sabbath man. The thought struck me (as I have Michelet's Life of Luther) that I would get together all he says of Luther's views on the Sabbath and law. The result is, as our readers will see, that Luther was not a no-law man, but he designed to strike against superstition in his remarks that seem to be against the law.

On p. 183 Luther is represented as saying: 'Why do we teach and keep the ten commandments? The reason is, that nowhere is the natural law so well arranged and laid down as in Moses. I wish we had borrowed from him in temporal things as well.' Then follows the quotation above referred to concerning keeping the Sabbath, not as a matter of necessity, but because nature teaches us to take a day of rest, &c.

It was not Luther's intention in the above text to strike against the law, as he elsewhere shows. He says on p. 215, in speaking of the Antinomians, and, in particular, of Eisleben, 'Such doctrine, however, must not be endured. Reject the law, without which there can be no church nor government! this is not tapping the cask, but breaking it in.' Again, he says of him on the same page: 'He would base repentance on the love of justice, and so preaches the revelation of divine wrath to the just and pious only. He does not preach for the wicked. Yet St. Paul says the law is for the ungodly. In short, by taking away the law, he takes away the gospel, and he withdraws our belief from the firm support of conscience to subject it to the caprices of the flesh. Who could have dreamt of this sect of the Antinomians.'

On pp. 216-7, he says of Luther: 'Master Jobst, dining one day with Luther, showed him some propositions, according to which the law ought not to be preached, since we are not justified by it.' Luther got angry and exclaimed, 'What, will my brethren propose such innovations even while I live! Ah! how ought not Master Philip to be honored, who teaches with clearness and truth the use and utility of the law! Cousin Albert Von Mansfield's prophecy is being realized. He wrote to me: 'There is Munzer lurking behind that doctrine;' and, indeed, he who pulls down the law, pulls down at the same time the whole framework of human polity and society. If the law be thrust out of the church, there will no longer be anything recognized as sin in the world, since the gospel defines and punishes sin only by recurring to the law. If, at the outset, I inveighed against the law, both from the pulpit and in my writings, the reason was, that the Christian church was at the time overladen with superstitions, under which Christ was altogether buried and hidden, and that I yearned to save and liberate pious, God-fearing souls from this tyranny over the conscience. But I have never rejected the law.

I would here remark that it matters little to the Bible student whether great men have subscribed to its truths or not. But for the sake of those who may trust in the multitude of mighty men it may be good to learn that Luther was in sentiment on the side of God's truth; although it is quite certain that he did not keep all the ten commandments. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

Battle Creek, Jan., 1861.